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Politics : Stockman Scott's Political Debate Porch -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: lurqer who wrote (17619)	4/20/2003 8:07:51 PM
From: Mannie	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 89467

U.S. plans to keep Iraq bases By Thom Shanker and Eric Schmitt The New York Times WASHINGTON — The United States is planning a long-term military relationship with the emerging government of Iraq, one that would grant the Pentagon access to military bases and project U.S. influence into the heart of the unsettled region, senior Bush administration officials say. U.S. military officials spoke of maintaining perhaps four bases in Iraq that could be used in the future: one at the international airport just outside Baghdad; another at Tallil, near Nasiriyah in the south; the third at an isolated airstrip called H-1 in the western desert, along the old oil pipeline that runs to Jordan; and the last at the Bashur air field in the Kurdish north. "There will be some kind of a long-term defense relationship with a new Iraq, similar to Afghanistan," said one senior administration official. "The scope of that has yet to be defined — whether it will be full-up operational bases, smaller forward operating bases or just plain access." The military is already using these bases to support continuing operations against the remnants of the old government, to deliver supplies and relief aid, and for reconnaissance patrols. If relations between the United States and whoever takes control in Baghdad allow use of the bases, the military relationship could become one of the most striking developments in a strategic revolution now playing out across the Middle East and Southwest Asia, from the Mediterranean to the Indian Ocean. A military foothold in Iraq would be felt across the border in Syria, and, in combination with the continuing U.S. presence in Afghanistan, it would virtually surround Iran with a new web of U.S. influence. The move comes as the Pentagon has begun to shrink its military footprint elsewhere in the region. Officials have said the United States is likely to reduce U.S. forces in Saudi Arabia. The main reason for that presence was to protect the Saudi government from the threat Iraq has posed since its invasion of Kuwait in 1990. In Turkey, where a newly elected government bowed to domestic pressure and denied the Pentagon access to bases and supply lines for the war with Iraq, the United States has withdrawn nearly all of its 50 attack and support airplanes at the Incirlik air base, from which they flew patrols over Iraq's north for more than a decade. In addition, since Sept. 11, 2001, there has been a concerted diplomatic and military effort to win permission for U.S. forces to operate from the formerly communist nations of Eastern Europe, across the Mediterranean, throughout the Middle East and the Horn of Africa, and across Central Asia, from the periphery of Russia to Pakistan's ports on the Indian Ocean. These bases and access agreements have established an expanded U.S. presence, or deepened alliance ties, throughout one of the world's most strategic regions. "Sept. 11 changed more than just the terrorism picture," said one senior administration official. "On Sept. 11, we woke up and found ourselves in Central Asia. We found ourselves in Eastern Europe as never before, as the gateway to Central Asia and the Middle East." Col. John Dobbins, commander of Tallil Forward Air Base, said the Air Force plan envisioned "probably two bases that will stay in Iraq for an amount of time." "That amount of time, obviously, is an unknown," he added. In addition to Tallil, the other base for the Air Force is at Bashur, in the north, Pentagon officials said. The Army currently holds the Baghdad airport. The H-1 base in the west has allowed special-operations forces to move out of their secret bases in Jordan and Saudi Arabia and set up a forward headquarters. For the Afghan conflict, the Pentagon negotiated new basing agreements with Pakistan and two former Soviet republics, Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan. But the arrangements also signaled a long-term commitment to the region and gave the military the ability to deploy forces there quickly. Although the new bases in Iraq are primarily for mounting comprehensive postwar-security operations, senior administration officials make no secret that the U.S. presence at those bases near Syria and Iran and long-term access to them "will make them nervous." Or as Secretary of State Colin Powell put it on Thursday: "We have been successful in Iraq. There is a new dynamic in that part of the world." Even so, administration officials are quick to echo Powell's assertions that the Bush administration has "no war plan right now" for Syria or Iran. "So don't ask if our tanks are going to move right or left out of Iraq," said one senior administration official. "There are a lot of political weapons that can be unleashed to achieve our goals." Among the pressures to be exerted against Syria will be a campaign to focus the world's attention on a new administration message. "Syria occupies Lebanon," one senior administration official said. "This is the repression of one Arab state by another. Plus there are terror-training camps in the Bekaa Valley." In addition to tamping down public anxiety over possible military action against Syria or Iran, officials argue that those two nations have the most significant vote as to whether the United States will ever apply the template of "regime change" in Iraq to them. "This does not mean, necessarily, that other governments have to fall," one senior administration official said. "They can moderate their behavior."